During an assessment of Patient transport services
Date of assessment: 11 June to 24 June 2025. This assessment was carried out in response to concerns and length of time since registration without an assessment.
EMED Surrey Heartlands is one of 11 locations operating as part of the overall provider, ERS Transition trading as EMED Group Limited, and provides Patient Transport Services. The provider commenced this service, EMED Surrey Heartlands, in April 2024. EMED Surrey Heartlands operates from 2 ambulance stations, one located in Guildford and one in Redhill. The provider had a third ambulance station; however, this was recently closed and staff and vehicles merged with the Guildford site.
EMED Surrey Heartlands operates 4 distinct arms: patient care (PTS), safe care (transport of mental health patients), community care (transport for children requiring help to get to and from school), and courier services (for healthcare related services). This assessment focused on patient care only.
The PTS service included 2 elements:
- Transport for patients who required dialysis (renal)
- Non-emergency PTS to outpatients, transfer of patients between hospitals or to other units, discharges from hospital, and end of life journeys.
EMED Surrey Heartlands do not currently transport high dependency patients; however, managers told us they anticipate this will be part of the business in the future. High dependency journeys are currently outsourced to a third provider. EMED Surrey Heartlands carry out approximately 120 to 140 renal journeys and between 430 to 470 other transport journeys per day.
The service worked with people to understand and manage risks. Staff made sure equipment, facilities and technology supported the delivery of safe care. The service assessed and managed the risk of infection. The service made sure that medicines were safe and met people’s needs. The service made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing, and communication needs with them. Staff always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. The service supplied appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information in formats that were tailored to individual needs. The provider worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who work for them.
However, the service did not ensure relevant staff received the appropriate training in incident investigation. Staff raising incidents did not always receive feedback after investigations were complete. The service did not always treat people as individuals or make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. The service did not always listen to and understand people’s needs, views and wishes. It was not always easy for people to share feedback and ideas, or raise complaints about their care, treatment, and support. People could not always access the care, support and treatment they needed when they needed it. The service did not have a clear shared vision, strategy, or culture. Not all leaders understood the context in which the service delivered care, treatment, and support. People did not always feel they could speak up and that their voice would be heard.
We found 3 breaches of the legal regulations relating to treating people as individuals, responding to people’s immediate needs, and governance.